Welcome to the 2007 Feast of Tabernacles in beautiful Flagstaff, Arizona. Look all around you. We’re surrounded by the largest Ponderosa pine forest in the United States. The hills, the valleys, and the mountains are covered with beautiful trees and the scent of pine needles makes every breath a stimulation of the senses. The temperature is warm and enjoyable during the day with a cool reminder of the changing seasons in the evenings. We have a beautiful facility in which to meet. Everything is great! In this small enclave, God has provided a sheltered venue of peace and safety for us all. We are still in the world but not besieged by the craziness of the world.

We know why we are here: because God commanded us to be. That’s the short explanation but have you asked yourself if there’s more to it than just obediently fulfilling our commanded duty? We still live in countries free enough to allow us to make our own decisions. We have a considerable freedom of choice, if we choose to use it. Are we going to obey God’s command? Do we choose to assemble where he has placed his name and when he has placed his name there? Are we going to be obediently submissive to God’s command or are we going to perform in a manner more of our own determination?

The commandment is plain for all to see. As we all know, Leviticus 23 outlines all the Holy Days of God throughout the year. Verse four holds the key to the rest of the chapter.

(Lev 23:4 NASB) 'These are the appointed times of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at the times appointed for them.

 

Notice, Moses didn’t say that God’s instructions were for his people to keep seven holy days throughout the year just whenever they wanted to keep them. He didn’t say that God was "loosey-goosey" about keeping those days whenever it best suited us. He said they were:

a) appointed times, that is, times of appointment with God and

b) they were to be kept "at the times appointed for them."

 

You wouldn’t go to a doctor or dentist just whenever you wanted, expecting him to meet with you. You wouldn’t go to the governor’s mansion or the presidential palace without an appointment. That would be foolish because you don’t know his schedule. He might be full of other business; he might be meeting with other people; or he might be on vacation. You would not go without an appointment and you would go at the proper time for that appointment.

So it is with God. He is the King of the Universe. His job is to mind the functioning of that Universe. It’s no small task. He invented and he maintains the laws of the Universe. Out of his busy schedule, he has set aside time to commune with his people at set appointments. At other times, he might be off attending to a wandering comet, or minding the planets Saturn and Jupiter, or he might even be occupied with something far off in the Andromeda Galaxy. Keep that point forefront in your mind: who are we to tell the King of the Universe what time is most convenient for us to come before him. What gall, what chutzpah! Our creator and our sustainer, the one who gives us our very lives and the breath that sustains us has plainly told us the precise times he has chosen out of his busy schedule when he will meet with us.

One of those seven annual holy days is today: the Feast of Tabernacles. It’s not next week or even next month. Today is the fifteenth day of the seventh month. It’s easy enough for us to determine that this is the fifteenth day since the new moon. The new moon is the precise time between the waning or decreasing of the old month and the waxing or increasing of the new month. It is the instant of time in God’s capitol of the world, Jerusalem, when the moon is in direct line with the sun, when there is no visible moon. The seventh month, and every other month, is determined from the first month, Abib, at the time of the spring equinox. As per God’s instructions in Exodus 34:22, the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month is at the "turn" of the year, or "tequphah." That is the fall equinox on September 23 just two days ago. For more information on the details of Gods’ calendar, please see our booklet, The Original Calendar for Our Day.

The specific command for the Feast of Tabernacles is found in Leviticus 23:34.

 

(Lev 23:34-36 NASB) "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'On the fifteenth of this seventh month is the Feast of Booths for seven days to the LORD. {35} 'On the first day is a holy convocation; you shall do no laborious work of any kind. {36} 'For seven days you shall present an offering by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation and present an offering by fire to the LORD; it is an assembly. You shall do no laborious work.

 

Continue in verse 39.

Focus on that last verse, "So Moses declared to the sons of Israel the appointed times of the LORD." Yes, Moses declared the specific, appointed times for the children of Israel to meet with the King of the Universe. Did they listen? Well, maybe a few did for a little while but despite the Israelites’ pledge of agreement to keep God’s covenant in Exodus, we know Israel failed. Over the centuries, there were high spots and low spots, but mostly low spots. There were good times and bad times, but mostly bad times. The examples of faith and stalwart obedience were few and far between. To the degree that Israel kept God’s holy days, so went Israel’s lot in the world. Sure there was the overriding plan of God that rescued his people in their greatest times of distress but it was not due to their own righteousness. It was for God’s great purpose that he rescued his people time and again from the edge of the cliff.

At other times of voluntary choice, when Israel truly sought God and truly returned to obey his laws and statutes, including his holy days, God heard and blessed his people. Look at a prime example in the book of governmental and societal restoration under the authority of the great governor, Nehemiah. Look at chapter 7 and verse 73.

(Neh 7:73 NASB) Now the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants, and all Israel, lived in their cities. And when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities.

 

Let’s continue in chapter eight and verse one.

Look at verse 17 again: "The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day." Do you remember the reforms made under one of the last kings of Judah, Josiah, when his priests rediscovered the Torah scrolls and God’s instructions about the Passover? God made a summary statement about the type of feast they kept to him in 2 Chronicles 35:17.

Truly it was a monumental celebration in obedience to God’s instructions but it only showed they had not kept the Passover in such a diligent manner since the time of Samuel. Josiah’s kingdom was about a hundred years before the time of Nehemiah, so let’s go back again to God’s statement of the quality of Israel’s celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles at the time of Nehemiah. He said, "the sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. We just read how Josiah kept the Passover better than any king since Samuel but there was no comment about how he kept the Feast of Tabernacles. Nehemiah’s Feast of Tabernacles was compared all the way back to the time of Joshua. Remember, Joshua lived hundreds of years before Israel’s last judge, Samuel. Think of the significance of that statement. The sons of Israel had not kept the Feast of Tabernacles so obediently in the time of Josiah or the time of Hezekiah. Both of those kings were the only ones of whom God made the praiseworthy statement that there was "no king like him" either before or after who trusted in the Lord with all his might or who turned to the Lord according to all the law of Moses (see our sermon, A King Like No Others). Certainly, the sons of Israel had not kept the Feast of Tabernacles so obediently in the time of Solomon or even in the time of David, the man after God’s own heart. They hadn’t kept it so obediently in the time of any of the judges. It wasn’t since the time of Joshua that the sons of Israel had kept the Feast of Tabernacles as obediently as they did during the governorship of Nehemiah. That’s more than 1,000 years. Just roll that concept around in your mind for a while.

Why do you think it was so? Was it due to forgetfulness or inattention or ignorance? In times of war, it may have been due to circumstances beyond their control. In times of peace, however, the type and duration of such celebrations were certainly within their control. Since David was termed by God as "a man after my own heart," it’s reasonable to expect that Israel did keep all of God’s holy days, including the Feast of Tabernacles, during David’s reign but probably not to the degree or with the intensity of joy and purpose they displayed in Nehemiah’s time. That intensity of celebration during the time of Nehemiah may actually have been so full due to the circumstances of their recent return from captivity. Nonetheless, it clearly implies that their celebration had not been so jubilant for more than 1,000 years.

Except for the unusual and periodic reigns of righteousness, Israel’s wanderings from God were frequent. There’s probably no better example of Israel’s see-saw obedience than that displayed in the book of Judges, in the second chapter and verse seven.

The ups and downs of Israel under the Judges is best summarized in the last verse of Judges 21:25.

In Ezekiel 20:3, God recounts the many instances in which the good he extended to Israel was repaid with betrayal.

God has much to say about mankind choosing to go his own way. Thousands of years ago, Samuel told Saul how God feels about a man going his own way, disregarding the directives of God. In 1 Samuel 15:22, Samuel caught Saul directly disobeying the clear instructions of God to kill all the Amalekites and their possessions.

So, Saul lost it all because of his rebellion. He probably didn’t see his actions as rebellion but that’s the way God saw it. Saul had been placed by God in a position of responsibility and had authority over all the people of the land, yet he feared and gave in to the demands of the people rather than obey the demands of God. In verse 23, God flatly called his actions "rebellion" and that rebellion God deemed as being sin. Furthermore, God saw Saul’s actions as "insubordination." Webster’s Dictionary tells us that insubordination is "not submitting to authority; disobedient." God went on to say that Saul’s insubordination was "iniquity and idolatry."

That’s pretty plain. Rebellion and insubordination are sin in God’s eyes. Well, if that’s the end result, what’s the beginning? What is the start or the origin of rebellion and insubordination? Mankind, as a whole, has insisted on going his own way and making his own choices, independent of the directives of God. The germ of that rebellious reasoning starts in the mind with willfulness, the insistence of pursuing the wishes of the self. Willfulness is rooted in selfishness.

Selfishness can be displayed in many ways, either overtly through our actions or covertly through our thoughts. Everyday we are surrounded with people’s rebellion against God. We see it so much that we may become numb to it. We may no longer see the actions of others in the same way God sees them.

Take, for example, a staple in the commonplace American diet. Look at it from God’s viewpoint in Isaiah 65:2.

It’s not hard to understand that God equates the eating of swine’s flesh and unclean meat with rebellion. Furthermore, God says it is a sign of people following their own thoughts, which he says, "is not good." God isn’t the only one who says the eating of swine’s flesh is not good. So do many modern scientists and health experts. In his book, Lifeforce, Dr. Jeff McCombs advocates the elimination of pork from the American diet.

"One of the greatest risks in eating pork is an unknown one. It is a retrovirus called porcine endogenous. This retrovirus lives in all pork cells. Scientists have no idea how this retrovirus affects humans. What is known is that these viruses survive heating and cooking, even at extremely high temperatures over long periods of time. If you are not familiar with what retroviruses can do, think of AIDS. The symptoms that come from AIDS are associated most often with retroviruses. Retroviruses use the body’s own cells to replicate themselves. This means that retroviruses go undetected for many, many years as they spread throughout the body… These retroviruses dramatically reduce the body’s ability to fight off disease, suppress the person’s immune system, and make the consumer of pork more susceptible to disease… Eating pork causes many problems, including hormonal imbalances, joint and back pains, inflammation, excessive histamine production, headaches, increased susceptibility to colds and flues, as well as potentially being partially responsible for degenerative disease such as arthritis, heart disease and cancer… Pigs also harbor many other toxins, are latent with diseases, and contain worms. Most flu viruses that we encounter in the United States come from the lungs of pigs that create an incubator for the combination of bird, human, and porcine diseases. The Center for Disease Control has stated that as many as 200 of these combined viruses make their way from Southern China to the United States each year through pigs. Pigs scavenge and eat anything in their path including dead insects, worms, rotting carcasses, rats, their own feces, garbage, and other pigs. Whatever a pig eats turns to meat on its bones within a few hours. Pork is virtually undigested garbage. Pork causes stress in the body, both physically and emotionally, and gives rise to physical poisoning. This is a fact well known in the scientific community. It is obvious to everyone that when pork products are not prepared properly, sickness can result [from] their consumption. However, this also applies to all pork products, including cured meats such as ham and bacon, smoked meats, sausages, etc… A professor at the London Institute for Virus Research states that flu viruses remained alive and active and were found in sausages, hot dogs, ham, bacon, pork chops, virtually all pork products. This means that the flu viruses and other viruses that live in the lungs of pigs and in the tissues of pigs survive the cooking and preparation process. When you eat any pork product, you are eating living, dangerous viruses. Additionally, pork is the primary source of taenia solium tapeworm. This type of parasite spreads throughout the body. One in six Americans has triginosis and gets it from eating pork. Like most parasites, these go undetected for years, and years, and years. These parasites steal nutrients from our cells and promote inflammation and degeneration within all tissues. They help create an environment that is conducive for cancer, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, as well as indigestion, gas, bloating, acid reflux, fatigue, and depression."

Just think about it for a moment. God knows all this. While it may be news to some of us, it is not news to God. He created pigs for a purpose: to be scavengers and to be the "clean up crew" in fulfilling the cycle of nature to dispose of other dead and dying creatures. He created pigs to do a job, not for them to be food for humans. Remember what we read in Isaiah 65:4; a rebellious people follow their own thoughts and walk in a way which is not good.

We may take this as ho-hum old news. If we have been in the church for years, we learned God’s warning many years ago. That isn’t the point. Most Americans either know or have suspicions about such common abominations to God. Most people have heard that practicing Jews are commanded not to eat pork. Even though they may be deluded by modern perversions of New Testament teachings, they know the consumption of pork is not pleasing to God. Why do they do it? Granted, some few may do it out of ignorance but the majority, whether they admit it or not, do it out of rebellion and selfishness. In Hosea 4:1, we can see that clearly stated.

Most Americans and, most of the rest of the European Israelitish nations have, indeed, forgotten or ignored the law of God. Are you among them?

We stated earlier that we are here because God commands us to assemble before him on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. We know that and we are dutifully obeying that command, but is there more to it?

Well, yes, there is more to it than just obedience. Earlier we read where Samuel said to Saul, "to obey is better than sacrifice." In other words, to live correctly according to God’s prescriptions is better than living disobediently and continually seeking forgiveness. In the Psalms, however, David went beyond the admonition of Samuel and got right to the intent of what God yearns for in those who seek him.

Let’s look at Psalms 78.

David learned from history. He saw how his forefathers had treated God. He focused on the core of the issue, however, in verse eight by pinpointing the heart. His forefathers, and our forefathers as well, were "a generation that did not prepare its heart and whose spirit was not faithful to God." On the other hand, look at Psalms 51 to see an example, in a different setting, of the contrite attitude of one who did correctly prepare his heart.

In the New Testament in Titus 2:1, Paul wrote to Titus about the qualities God desires his people to have. These are all qualities that are motivated by what is in the heart.

Furthermore, Paul spoke to the Romans about the subject of circumcision. It’s evident that Paul was dealing with the Jewish frame of reference that circumcision is essential to salvation. We know that circumcision is merely the outward physical manifestation or sign of submission and obedience to God’s covenant. In Romans 2:25, Paul shows the real circumcision God desires is that of the heart.

Look at that more closely. Most people merely get the main point in the last verse and gloss right over the previous four verses. They read it as if Paul wrote verse 29 to read: "But since he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and since circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and since his praise is not from men, but from God… he doesn’t have to keep the law at all."

Well, if that’s what your Bible says, I think you’d better go get another Bible. That’s not what Paul said and that’s not what he meant. All you have to do to verify that is to read the previous four verses.

Look at verse 26: Paul is talking about the uncircumcised man who keeps the requirements of the law.

Look at verse 27: again, Paul is speaking of the uncircumcised man "who keeps the law will judge you [and the Greek word is Strong’s number 2919, krino which means to distinguish or decide; by implication to try, condemn, punish].

So, again, Paul says that even the uncircumcised man who keeps the law will condemn you who are transgressing the law of God.

What can you conclude from Paul’s verses? If you’re reading without a traditional Protestant spin, it’s easy to see that Paul is not doing away with the law of God. Instead, he is focusing on the heart of the law keeper but he isn’t saying it’s only the heart of the person that counts, regardless of his actions. Paul takes as a "given" that Christians are obeying the law of God. He merely says that through a circumcised heart and spirit, even one who is not outwardly circumcised can keep the law of God.

We are gathered here, from being scattered by hundreds or thousands of miles, to obey God and keep his commanded Feast of Tabernacles. There’s a difference, though. Even though we do it obediently, we do it through a willing heart. We willingly seek to keep the Feast in a manner pleasing to our Creator. To that end, we have abandoned obedience to mere Jewish tradition by diligently seeking the original intent of what God directed us in his scriptures. We follow the instructions, both those written and displayed for us in the heavens, to know beyond a shadow of doubt the first, the tenth, and the fifteenth days of the seventh month. We’re not a day late or a month late. We are here on the exact day he commanded. The day when he says his people are to have an appointment with him.

In the next eight days, you’re going to hear a lot about the law of God and the Kingdom of God. You will hear about the past, the present, and, most of all, about the future that awaits us. I urge you to listen with open ears. Study the lessons we are given. Meditate on them. Think of all their possible applications. Put them into action in your lives. Keep in mind, however, to look beyond the mere "letter" of the law to see God’s spiritual intent. Write that in your hearts and minds. Remember, David said it is the broken spirit, the broken and contrite heart that God really desires. That is the real reason we are here at all. We’re not here just to obey God’s commandment to assemble. We are here to learn to put God’s laws to work in our lives and to learn to have a spirit that is pleasing to our Creator.

Studies in the Word of God
 

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